;  i ;  ■  I ! ; :  1 . . . 


135 

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I.  ZIONISM  AND  ANTI-SEMITISM.  By  Max 

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OTHER  VOLUMES  TO  BE  ANNOUNCED  LATER 


SCOTT-THAW  COMPANY 

No.  54a  FIFH  AVENUE,  New  York  City 


Contemporary  Thought  Series 


Zionism 

and 

Anti-Semitism 


Zionism 


AND 


Anti-Semitism 


B. 


MAX  NORDAU 

Ojfficier  d'  A  cadkmie,  France 


AND 


GUSTAV  GOTTHEIL 


Ph.  D. 


New  York 

SCOTT-THAW  COMPANY 

542  Fifth  Avenue 

M  C  M  I  V 


j  A' 


Copyright  igos 

FREDERICK  A.  RICHARDSON 


Copyright  /goj 

SCOTT-THA  W  COMPANY 


The  Heintzemann  Press,  Boston 


CONTENTS 


Zionism  ,  By  Max  Nordau . 

Anti-Semitism  in  Europe  .  .  .  . 

By  Gustav  Gottheil. 


PAGB 

9 

47 


ZIONISM 

B  Y 

Max  Nordau 


ZIONISM 


A  MONG  the  persons  of  the  educated  classes 
1  who  follow  with  any  attention  all  the  more 
important  movements  of  the  times,  it  would  now 
be  difficult  to  find  one  to  whom  the  word  “Zion¬ 
ism  is  quite  unknown.  People  are  generally 
aware  that  it  describes  an  idea  and  a  movement 
that  in  the  last  years  has  found  numerous  adher¬ 
ents  among  the  Jews  of  all  countries,  but  espe- 
cially  among  those  of  the  East.  Comparatively 
few,  however,  both  among  the  Gentiles  and  the 
Jews  themselves,  have  a  perfectly  clear  notion 
of  the  aims  and  ways  of  Zionism ;  the  Gentiles, 
because  they  do  not  care  sufficiently  for  Jewish 
affairs  to  take  the  trouble  to  inform  themselves 
at  first  hand  as  to  the  particulars ;  the  Jews,  be¬ 
cause  they  are  intentionally  led  astray  by  the 


9 


ZIONISM 


eneniics  of  Ziomsni}  by  lies  and  caliimniGo)  or 
because  even  among  the  fervent  Zionists  there 
are  not  many  who  have  probed  the  whole  Zionist 
idea  to  the  bottom,  and  are  willing  or  able  to 
present  it  in  a  clear  and  comprehensible  fashion, 
without  exaggeration  and  polemical  heat. 

I  will  endeavor  to  furnish  readers  of  good 
faith,  who  are  not  biased,  and  have  no  other  in¬ 
terest  than  that  of  gaining  authentic  informa¬ 
tion  about  a  phenomenon  in  contemporary  his¬ 
tory,  as  concisely  and  soberly  as  possible  with  all 
the  facts,  as  they  really  are,  not  as  they  are 
reflected  in  muddled  brains,  or  distorted  and 
falsifled  by  calumniators. 

I. 

Zionism  is  a  new  word  for  a  very  old  object, 
in  so  far  as  it  merely  expresses  the  yearning  of 
the  Jewish  people  for  Zion.  Since  the  destruc¬ 
tion  of  the  second  temple  by  Titus,  since  the 
dispersion  of  the  Jewish  nation  in  all  countries, 
this  people  has  not  ceased  to  long  intensely,  and 


lO 


ZIONISM 


hope  fervently,  for  the  return  to  the  lost  land  of 
their  fathers.  This  yearning  for,  and  hope  in, 
Zion  on  the  part  of  the  Jews  was  the  concrete, 

I  might  say,  the  geographical,  aspect  of  their 
Messianic  faith,  which  in  its  turn  forms  an 
essential  part  of  their  religion. 

Messianism  and  Zionism  were  really,  for 
nearly  two  thousand  years,  identical  conceptions,  i/ 
and  without  caviling  and  hair-splitting  inter¬ 
pretation,  it  would  not  be  easy  to  make  a  dis¬ 
tinction  between  the  prayers  for  the  appearance 
of  the  promised  Messiah,  and  those  for  the  not 
less  promised  return  to  the  historical  home, — 
both  of  which  stand  side  by  side  on  every  page 
of  the  Jewish  liturgy.  These  prayers  were, 
until  a  few  generations  ago,  meant  literally  by 
every  Jew,  as  they  still  are  by  the  simple  believ¬ 
ing  Jews.  The  Jews  had  no  other  idea  than 
that  they  were  a  people  which  as  a  punishment 
for  its  sins  had  lost  the  land  of  its  forefathers, 
which  was  condemned  to  live  as  strangers  in 
strange  lands,  and  whose  great  sufferings  would 


ZIONISM 


first  cease  when  it  was  again  assembled  on  the 
consecrated  soil  of  the  Holy  Land. 

V.  This  gradually  changed  about  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  when  enlightenment  first 
began  to  find  its  way  into  Jewdom,  in  the  per¬ 
son  of  its  first  herald,  Mo^es  Mendelssohn,  the 
popular  philosopher.  The  faith  of  the  Jews 
became  more  lukewarm;  the  educated  classes, 
where  they  did  not  simply  convert  themselves  to 

^  Christianism,  began  to  regard  the  doctrines  of 
their  religion  in  a  rationalist  manner;  for  them 
the  dispersion  of  the  Jewish  people  was  a  final 
and  unalterable  fact ;  they  emptied  the  concep¬ 
tion  of  the  Messiah  and  of  Zion  of  every  con¬ 
crete  meaning,  and  arranged  for  themselves  a 
singular  doctrine,  according  to  which  the  Zion 
promised  to  the  Jews  was  to  be  understood  only 
in  a  spiritual  sense,  as  the  setting  up  of  the 
Jewish  monotheism  in  the  whole  world,  as  the 
future  triumph  of  Jewish  ethics  over  the  less 
sublime  and  less  noble  moral  teaching  of  the 
other  nations.  An  American  rabbi  reduced  this 


12 


ZIONISM 


conception  to  the  striking  formula,  “Our  Zion 
is  in  Washington.”  The  Mendelssohn  teaching 
logically  developed  in  the  first  half  of  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century  into  the  “Reform,”  which  delib¬ 
erately  broke  with  Zionism.  For  the  Reform 
Jew,  the  word  Zion  had  just  as  little  meaning  as 
the  word  dispersion.  He  does  not  feel  himself 
in  any  diaspora.  He  denies  that  there  is  a  Jew¬ 
ish  people  and  that  he  is  a  member  of  it.  He 
desires  only  to  belong  to  the  people  in  whose 
midst  he  lives.  For  him  Judaism  is  a  purely 
religious  conception  which  has  nothing  whatever 
to  do  with  nationality.  The  land  of  his  birth 
is  his  fatherland,  and  he  will  know  of  no  other. 
The  idea  of  a  return  to  Palestine  excites  him 
either  to  indignation  or  to  laughter.  He 
answers  it  with  the  well-known,  silly,  would-be 
witticism,  “If  the  Jewish  state  is  again  set  up 
in  Palestine,  I  will  ask  to  be  its  ambassador  in 
Paris.” 

The  thinking  Jew  did  not  fail,  however,  to 
perceive,  in  the  course  of  time,  that  Reform 


13 


ZIONISM 


Judaism  is  a  half  measure,  a  compromise,  which 
like  every  compromise,  contains  the  germ  of  de¬ 
struction,  as  it  cannot  for  one  instant  resist 
logical  criticism.  Whom  shall  the  Reform  Ju¬ 
daism  satisfy The  believing  Jew.?  He  re¬ 
jects  it  with  the  greatest  abhorrence.  The  un¬ 
believing  Jew?  He  despises  it  as  hypocrisy  and 
phrase-mongering.  The  Jew  who  really  desires 
to  break  with  his  national  past  and  to  be  ab¬ 
sorbed  by  his  Christian  surroundings?  For 
that  Jew,  Reform  Judaism  does  not  suffice;  he 
goes  a  step  farther,  the  step  that  leads  to  the 
baptismal  font.  Still  less  does  it  satisfy  the  Jew 
who  desires  to  guard  Jewdom  against  destruc¬ 
tion  and  to  preserve  it  as  an  ethnical  individual¬ 
ity.  For  to  him  an  openly  expressed  abandon¬ 
ment  of  all  national  aspirations  is  synonymous 
with  a  self-condemnation  of  the  Jewish  people 
to  a  perhaps  slow,  but  sure,  death.  Reform 
^  Judaism  without  Zionism,  that  is  to  say,  without 
the  wish  and  the  hope  for  a  reassembling  of  the 
Jewish  people,  has  no  future,  At  the  best,  it 

H 


ZIONISM 


can  only  be  regarded  as  a  somewhat  crooked 
path  that  leads  to  Christianity.  He  who  de¬ 
sires  to  reach  that  goal  can  find  straighter  and 
shorter  routes. 

II. 

And  so  it  has  come  about  that  the  generations 
which  had  been  under  the  influence  of  the  Men- 
delssohnian  rhetoric  and  enlightenment,  of  reform 
and  assimilation,  have,  in  the  last  twenty  years 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  been  followed  by  a 
new  generation  which  seeks  to  take  up  a  stand¬ 
point  other  than  the  traditional  towards  the 
question  of  Zion.  These  new  Jews  shrug  their 
shoulders  at  that  twaddle  which  has  been  the 
fashion  among  rabbis  and  literati  for  the  last 
hundred  years,  and  which  boasts  of  a  ‘‘Mission 
of  Jewdom,”  said  to  consist  in  this,  that  the 
Jews  must  live  forever  in  dispersion  among  the 
peoples  in  order  to  act  as  their  teachers  and  mod¬ 
els  of  morality,  and  to  educate  them  gradually 
to  pure  rationalism,  to  a  general  brotherhood  of 
mankind,  and  to  an  ideal  cosmopolitanism. 

15 


ZIONISM 


They  declare  the  mission  swagger  to  be  either 
presumption  or  foolishness.  They,  more  mod¬ 
est  and  more  practical,  demand  only  the  right 
for  the  Jewish  people  to  live  and  to  develop  it¬ 
self,  according  to  its  abilities,  up  to  the  natural 
limits  of  its  type.  They  have  become  convinced 
that  this  is  not  possible  in  dispersion,  as,  under 
that  condition,  prejudice,  hatred,  and  contempt 
continually  follow  and  oppress  them,  and  either 
stint  their  development,  or  force  them  to  an  eth¬ 
nical  mimicry  which  necessarily  makes  of  them, 
instead  of  original  types  wdth  a  right  to  exist¬ 
ence,  mediocre  or  bad  copies  of  foreign  models. 
They  therefore  work  methodically  with  a  view 
to  rendering  the  Jewish  people  once  more  a  nor 
mal  one,  which  lives  on  its  own  soil,  and  accom¬ 
plishes  all  economical,  intellectual,  moral,  and 
political  functions  of  a  civilized  nation. 

The  goal  cannot  be  reached  at  once.  It  lies 
in  a  future  more  or  less  near.  It  is  an  ideal,  a 
desire,  a  hope,  as  the  Messianic  Zionism  was  and 
^  is.  The  new  Zionism,  which  has  been  called  the 

i6 


ZIONISM 


political  one,  differs,  however,  from  the  old,  the 
religious,  the  Messianic  one,  in  this, — that  it  dis¬ 
avows  all  mysticism,  no  longer  identifies  itself 
with  Messianism,  and  does  not  expect  the  return 
to  Palestine  to  be  brought  about  by  a  miracle, 
but  desires  to  prepare  the  way  by  its  own  efforts. 

The  new  Zionism  has  grown  in  part  only  out 
of  the  internal  impulsions  of  Judaism  itself,  out 
of  the  enthusiasm  jof  modern  educated  Jews  for 
their  history  and  martyrology,  out  of  the 
awakene^onsciousness  of  their  racial  qualities, 
out  of  their  ambition  to  save  the  ancient  blood, 
in  view  of  the  farthest  possible  future,  and  to 
add  to  the  achievements  of  their  forefathers  the 
achievements  of  their  posterity. 

On  the  other  hand,  Zionism  is  the  effect  of  two 
impulses  which  came  from  without, — first,  the 
principle  of  nationality,  which  for  half  a  cen¬ 
tury  ruled  thought  and  feeling  in  Europe,  and 
governed  the  politics  of  the  world ;  secondly, 
■^^l"^~Semitism,  from  which  the  Jews  of  all  coun¬ 
tries  have  more  or  less  to  suffer. 


17 


ZIONISM 


The  principle  of  nationality  has  awakened 
self-consciousness  in  all  the  peoples ;  it  teaches 
them*  to  regard  their  peculiarities  as  qualities, 
and  gives  them  a  passionate  desire  for  inde¬ 
pendence.  It  could  not,  therefore,  pass  over 
the  educated  Jews  without  leaving  a  trace.  It 
induced  them  to  remember  who  and  what  they 
are;  to  feel  themselves,  what  they  had  un- 
^  learned,  a  people  apart ;  and  to  demand  for 
themselves  a  normal  national  destiny.  This 
slow  and  painful  work  of  the  recovery  of  their 
national  individuality  was  rendered  easier  by  the 
attitude  of  the  peoples,  who  eliminated  them 
from  among  themselves  as  a  foreign  element,  and 
put  stress,  without  consideration  or  courtesy,  on 
the  real  and  imaginary  contrasts,  or  at  least  dif¬ 
ferences,  between  themselves  and  the  Jews. 

The  principle  of  nationality  has,  in  its  exag- 
\  gerations,  led  to  excesses.  It  has  been  led 
astray  into  Chauvinism,  abased  to  idiotic  hatred 
of  the  foreigner,  degraded  to  grotesque  self- 
worship.  From  this  caricature  of  itself  the  Jew- 

18 


ZIONISM 


ish  nationalism  is  safe.  The  Jewish  nationalist 
does  not  suffer  from  self-inflation;  he  feels,  on 
the  contrary,  that  he  must  make  tireless  efforts 
to  render  the  name  of  Jew  a  title  of  honor. 
He  modestly  recognizes  the  good  qualities  of 
other  nations,  and  seeks  diligently  to  acquire 
them  in  so  far  as  they  harmonize  with  his  natu- 
ral  capacities.  Pie  knows  what  terrible  harm 
centuries  of  slavery  or  disability  have  done  to 
his  originally  proud  and  upright  character,  and 
seeks  to  cure  it  by  means  of  intense  self -training. 
If,  however,  nationalism  is  on  its  guard  against 
all  illusions  as  to  itself,  this  is  a  natural  phase 
in  the  process  of  development  from  barbaric  self¬ 
ish  individualism  to  free  humanism  and  altruism, 
— a  phase  the  justification  and  necessity  of 
which  can  only  be  denied  by  him  who  has  no 
comprehension  whatever  of  the  laws  of  organic 
evolution,  and  is  totally  lacking  in  the  historical 
sense. 

Anti-Semitism  has  also  taught  many  educated 
Jev/s  the  way  back  to  their  people.  It  has  had 
the  effect  of  a  sharp  trial  which  the  weak  cannot 


19 


ZIONISM 


stand,  but  from  which  the  strong  emerge 
stronger  or  more  confident  in  themselves.  It  is 
not  correct  to  say  that  Zionism  is  but  a  ‘‘gesture 
of  truculence”  or  an  act  of  desperation  against 
Anti-Semitism.  It  is  true  that  more  than  one 
educated  Jew  has  been  moved  only  by  Anti- 
Semitism  to  throw  in  his  lot  again  with  Jewdom, 
and  he  would  again  fall  away  if  his  Christian 
fellow-countrymen  would  receive  him  anew  in  a 
friendly  spirit.  But,  in  the  case  of  most  Zion¬ 
ists,  Anti-Semitism  only  forced  them  to  reflect 
upon  their  relation  to  the  nations,  and  their 
reflection  has  led  em  to  conclusions  which 
would  remain  a  ’  sting  acquirement  of  their 
mind  and  heart,  even  if  Anti-Semitism  were  to 
disappear  completely  from  the  world. 

Be  it  well  understood;  the  Zionism  analyzed 
above  is  that  of  the  educated  and  free  Jews, — 
the  Jewish  elite.  The  uneducated  mass,  cling¬ 
ing  to  the  old  traditions,  is  Zionist  without  much 
reflection,  from  feeling,  from  instinct,  from  dis¬ 
tress,  and  yearning.  They  suffer  too  much 


20 


ZIONISM 


from  the  hardships  of  life,  from  the  hatred  of 
the  peoples,  from  legal  disabilities,  and  social 
outlawry;  they  feel  that  they  cannot  hope  for 
any  lasting  amelioration  of  their  situation  so 
long  as  they  must  live  as  a  powerless  minority 
among  a  hostile  majority.  They  desire  to  be¬ 
come  a  nation,  to  rejuvenate  themselves  by  close 
contact  with  mother  earth,  and  to  become  once 
more  the  masters  of  their  destinv.  This  Zionist 
mass  is  still  in  part  not  quite  free  from  mystical 
tendencies.  It  allows  its  Zionism  to  be  pervaded, 
to  a  certain  extent,  by  Messianic  reminiscences, 
and  blends  it  with  religir  em'^tions.  They 
have  certainly  a  clear  idea  of  he  aim,  the  reas¬ 
sembling  of  the  Jewish  nation,  but  not  of  the 
means.  Still,  even  they  have  realized  already 
the  necessity  of  themselves  making  efforts,  and 
there  is  a  vast  difference  between  their  active 
readiness  for  organization  and  their  spirit  of  sac¬ 
rifice,  and  the  pious,  prayer-indulging  passive¬ 
ness  of  the  purely  religious  Messianist. 


ZIONISM 


III. 

The  new  or  political  Zionism  has  had  here  and . 
there  forerunners,  whose  first  appearance  dates 
back  to  the  early  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  eighties  terrible  per¬ 
secutions  broke  out  in  Russia  without  any  ap¬ 
parent  reason,  persecutions  which  cost  hundreds 
of  Jews  their  lives,  destroyed  the  prosperity 
of  thousands  more,  and  induced  tens  of  thou¬ 
sands  to  turn  their  backs  on  the  land  of  their 
birth.  This  calamity  brutally  aroused  the  Jews 
from  their  hundred-year-old  illusions  and 
brought  them  again  to  a  sense  of  reality.  A 
Russian  Jew,  Dr.  Pinsker,  at  that  time  wrote  a 
small  pamphlet  entitled,  “Auto-Emancipation,” 
which  was  already  a  prelude  to  the  modern  politi¬ 
cal  Zionism,  and  sketched  all  its  motives  without 
however  developing  them  symphonically.  He, 
at  any  rate,  it  was  who  gave  its  watchword  to 
the  whole  movement:  “The  Jews  are  no  mere  re¬ 
ligious  community,  they  are  a  nation.  They 
desire  again  to  live  in  their  own  country  as  a 


ZIONISM 


united  people.  Their  rejuvenation  must  be  at 
the  same  time  economical,  physical,  intellectual, 
and  moral.” 

The  Jewish  youth  of  the  middle  schools  and 
universities  of  Russia  were  profoundly  affected 
by  Pinsker’s  arguments.  They  began  to  found^ — 
national  Jewish  societies.  A  number  of  students 
who  studied  at  foreign  universities  became  in 
their  new  surroundings  apostles  of  Dr.  Pin¬ 
sker’s  idea,  and  found  adherents  here  and  there, 
for  the  most  part  among  the  young  Jews  of 
Vienna.  Others  preferred  action  to  word,  ex¬ 
ample  to  sermon,  abandoned  their  studies,  and 
emigrated  to  Palestine  in  order  to  become  peas¬ 
ants  there, — Jewish  peasants  on  historically 
Jewish  soil.  Deeply  moved  by  this  idealism  of 
a  peculiarly  enthusiastic  elite,  cooler  headed 
Jews  in  Russia  and  Germany  began  also  to  form 
societies  in  order  to  support  from  a  distance  the 
Palestine  settlements  of  the  Jewish  pioneers. 
This  took  place  without  any  combined  plan  and 
with  no  clear  notion  of  the  aim  and  the  means. 


ZIONISM 


The  societies  were  not  conscious  of  the  fact  that 
they  felt  and  acted  as  Zionists.  They  did  not 
perceive  the  connection  between  the  Jewish  col¬ 
onization  of  Palestine  and  the  future  of  the 
whole  Jewish  nation.  It  was  in  their  case  rather 
an  instinctive  movement  in  which  all  kinds  of 
obscure  feelings  are  dimly  discernible,: — piety, 
archaeological-historical  sentimentality,  charity, 
^  and  pride  of  pedigree.  At  any  rate,  the  minds 
of  the  Jews  were  prepared,  the  feeling  was  in 
the  air,  Jewdom  was  ripe  for  a  change. 

As  is  always  the  case  in  such  historical  mo¬ 
ments,  the  man  also  appeared  whose  mission  it 
was  to  express  clearly  the  ideas  obscurely  felt 
by  many,  and  to  proclaim  loudly  the  word  they 
were  waiting  to  hear.  This  man  was  Dr.  The- 
^odor  Herzl.  He  published  in  the  autumn  of 
1896  a  concisely  written  booklet,  “Der  Juden- 
staat”  (The  Jewish  State),  which  proclaimed, 
with  a  determination  that  till  then  had  no 
precedent,  the  fact  that  the  Jews  are  a  people 
who  demand  for  themselves  all  the  rights  of  a 


24 


ZIONISM 


people,  and  who  desire  to  settle  in  a  country 
where  they  can  lead  a  free  and  complete  political 
existence. 

‘‘Der  Judenstaat”  has  become  the  real  starting 
point  of  political  Zionism, — the  starting  point, 
not  the  programme.  Herzl’s  book  is  still  the 
subjective  work  of  a  solitary  thinker  who  speaks 
in  his  own  name.  Many  details  in  it  are  litera¬ 
ture.  It  is  not  easy  to  draw  a  sharp  boundary 
line  between  the  sober  earnest  of  the  social  poli¬ 
tician  and  the  imagination  of  the  prophetical 
poet.  The  real  programme  had  to  be  a  collect¬ 
ive  work  which  was  certainly  based  on  Herzl’s 
book,  and  inspired  by  Herzl’s  visions  of  the  fu¬ 
ture,  but  which  rid  itself  of  all  fantastic  details, 
and  was  built  up  solely  from  the  elements  of 
reality. 

Herzl’s  book  was  at  once  greeted  by  tens  of 
thousands  of  Jews,  chiefly  the  young,  as  an  act 
of  redemption.  It  was  not  to  remain  merely 
printed  paper,  but  should  be  transformed  into 
a  practical  creation.  New  societies  were 

25 


ZIONISM 


founded  everywhere,  no  longer  with  a  view  of 
the  slow,  petty  settlement  of  Palestine  by  means 
of  groups  of  Jews  creeping  surreptitiously  as 
it  were  into  the  country,  but  by  the  preparation 
for  an  emigration  '‘‘^en  masse”  into  the  Holy 
Land,  based  on  a  formal  treaty  with  the  Turk¬ 
ish  Government,  guaranteed  by  the  Great 
Powers,  by  which  the  former  should  accord  the 
new  settlers  the  right  of  self-government. 

^The  premises  of  political  Zionism  are  that 
there  is  a  Jewish  nation.  This  is  just  the  point 
denied  by  the  assimilation  Jews,  and  the  spirit¬ 
less,  unctuous,  prating  rabbis  in  their  pay.  Dr. 
Herzl  saw  that  the  first  task  he  had  to  fulfil  was 
the  organizing  of  a  manifestation  which  should 
bring  before  the  world,  and  the  Jewish  people 
itself,  in  modern,  comprehensible  form  the  fact 
of  its  national  existence.  He  convoked  a  Zion¬ 
ist  congress,  which  in  spite  of  the  most  furious 
attacks  and  most  unscrupulous  acts  of  violence, 
— ^the  Jewish  community  of  Munich  where  the 
congress  was  originally  intended  to  be  held  pro- 

26 


ZIONISM 


tested  against  its  meeting  in  that  town, — as¬ 
sembled  for  the  first  time  in  Basel,  the  end  of  ^ 
August,  1897,  and  consisted  of  two  hundred 
and  four  selected  representatives  of  the  Zionist 
Jews  of  both  hemispheres. 

The  first  Zionist  congress  solemnly  proclaimed 
in  the  face  of  the  attentive  world  that  the  Jews 
are  a  nation,  and  that  they  do  not  desire  to  be 
absorbed  by  other  nations.  It  vowed  to  work 
for  the  emancipation  of  that  part  of  the  Jewish 
race  which  is  deprived  of  all  rights,  and  which 
is  dragging  out  its  existence  in  undeserved  mis¬ 
ery,  and  to  prepare  for  it  a  brighter  future. 

It  puts  its  aims  on  record  in  a  programme  unan¬ 
imously  adopted  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm. 
This  ran  as  follows: — 

“Zionism  works  to  create  for  the  Jewish  peo¬ 
ple  a  home  in  Palestine  guaranteed  by  public 
law. 

“For  the  reaching  of  this  goal  the  congress 
proposes  to  adopt  the  following  means: — 

“(1.)  The  well-regulated  promotion  of  the 


27 


ZIONISM 


settlement  of  Palestine  by  Jewish  agriculturists, 
artisans,  and  manufacturers. 

“(2.)  The  organization  and  knitting  to¬ 
gether  of  the  whole  Jewish  community  by  means 
of  proper  local  and  general  institutions,  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  the  law  of  the  different  countries. 

“(3.)  The  strengthening  of  the  Jewish  self- 
respect  and  national  consciousness. 

“(4.)  Preparatory  steps  for  obtaining  the 
consent  of  the  governments,  which  is  necessary 
for  the  achievement  of  the  aims  of  Zionism.” 

IV. 

The  first  congress  did  not  separate  without 
having  created  a  lasting  organization.  It 
elected  a  “Great  Committee  of  Action,”  in 
which  all  countries  with  a  somewhat  considerable 
Jewish  population  are  represented,  and  which  in 
its  turn  selected  a  smaller  “permanent  commit¬ 
tee”  with  its  headquarters  in  Vienna,  under  the 
presidency  of  Dr.  Herzl.  It  was  followed  in 
the  three  ensuing  years  by  three  further  con- 


28 


ZIONISM 


gresses,  in  1898  and  1899,  again  in  Basel,  and 
in  1900  in  London.  The  number  of  the  dele¬ 
gates  rose  in  1898  to  two  hundred  and  eighty, 
in  1899  to  three  hundred  and  seventy,  and  in 
1900  to  four  hundred  and  twenty.  At  every 
succeeding  congress  the  regulations  for  election 
were  more  strictly  enforced,  the  mandates  more 
closely  examined,  and  at  the  present  moment 
the  congress,  which  has  become  a  permanent  in¬ 
stitution  of  the  Zionist  Jewdom,  and  which  met 
for  the  fifth  time  in  December,  1901,  again  in 
Basel,  can  with  justice  claim  to  be  the  real 
representative  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  thou¬ 
sand  electors. 

He  who  desires  to  know  what  the  Jews  who 
have  been  represented  at  the  congress  have  done 
up  to  the  present  time  to  realize  the  programme 
of  Zionism  drawn  up  by  the  first  congress,  has 
only  to  compare  the  various  points  of  this  pro¬ 
gramme  with  the  facts  we  are  going  to  record. 

‘(1.)  The  well-regulated  promotion  of  the 
settlement  of  Palestine  by  Jewish  agriculturists, 
artisans,  and  manufacturers,” 


29 


ZIONISM 


^  Zionism  rejects  on  principle  all  colonization 
on  a  small  scale,  and  the  idea  of  “sneaking”  into 
Palestine.  The  Zionists  have  therefore  devoted 
themselves  preeminently  to  a  zealous  and  tireless 
advocacy  of  the  uniting  of  the  already  existing 
Jewish  colonies  in  Palestine  with  those  who  until 
now  have  given  them  their  aid  and  who  of  late 
have  inclined  towards  the  withdrawal  of  their  sup 
port  from  them.  The  Zionists  have  also  prepared 
the  way  for  founding  factories  in  the  Holy 
Land,  which  will  give  employment  to  the  Jewish 
workmen  there,  and  have  assured,  by  according 
a  yearly  subvention,  the  future  existence  of  the 
model  Hebraic  school  in  Jaffa,  which  was  about 
to  close  its  doors  for  want  of  funds.  They  take 
care  that  the  existing  and  promising  beginnings 
of  a  Jewish  colonization  shall  be  looked  after 
and  maintained  till  the  movement  will  be  possible 
on  a  large  scale. 

‘‘(2.)  The  organization  and  knitting  to¬ 
gether  of  the  whole  Jewish  community  by  the 
means  of  proper  local  and  general  institutions 

30 


ZIONISM 


in  accordance  with  the  law  of  the  different  coun- 
tries.” 

The  Zionist  Jewish  community  is  at  present 
organized  in  both  hemispheres  in  about  nine 
hundred  societies,  which  display  great  activity. 
In  the  matter  of  organization  covering  the 
whole  of  Jewdom,  Zionism  possesses  national 
federations  of  its  societies, — the  “great”  and  the 
“smaller  committee  of  action,”  and  the  congress 
which  maintains  a  permanent  secretarial  office  in 
Vienna.  The  cost  of  this  apparatus  is  covered 
by  the  voluntary  yearly  offerings  of  the  Zion¬ 
ists,  to  which  offerings  the  name  of  the  old 
Jewish  coinage  is  applied,  and  which  according¬ 
ly  are  known  as  “shekels,” — their  amount  being 
in  America  forty  cents,  and  in  Western  lands 
a  unit  of  the  coinage  (one  mark,  one  franc,  one 
shilling,  etc.).  The  payment  of  the  shekel 
gives  the  right  of  vote  for  the  congress.  Zion¬ 
ism  possesses  its  official  organ,  “Die  Welt,”  pub¬ 
lished  in  German  in  Vienna.  Its  ideas  are  fur¬ 
ther  set  forth  in  about  forty  other  periodicals  in 

31 


ZIONISM 


the  Hebrew,  German,  Russian,  Polish,  Italian, 
English,  French,  and  Roumanian  languages, 
and  in  the  Jewish-German  and  Judeo-Spanish 
jargons.  Its  American  organ  is  the  periodical, 
“The  Maccabsean.”  It  has  founded  numerous 
schools,  Toynbee  Halls,  and  educational  insti¬ 
tutes,  and  has  recently  begun  to  acquire  a  share 
in  the  administration  of  the  Jewish  communities, 
in  order  to  devote  their  resources,  more  than  has 
heretofore  been  the  case  with  the  anti-national 
or  unthinking  leaders,  to  the  promoting  of 
national  Jewish  instruction,  education,  and 
culture. 

“(3.)  Strengthening  of  the  Jewish  self-re¬ 
spect  and  national  consciousness.” 

The  Zionist  societies  use  every  effort  that 
the  members  and  the  Jewish  masses  in  general 
may  know  the  history  of  their  nation,  and 
become  acquainted  with  the  sacred  and  profane 
literature  in  the  Flebrew  tongue.  They  teach 
the  Jews  to  hold  their  heads  high,  to  be  proud 
of  their  descent,  and  to  despise  the  Anti-Semitic 


32 


ZIONISM 


lies,  calumnies,  and  insults.  They  care,  in  the 
measure  of  their  strength,  for  the  amelioration 
of  the  hygiene  of  the  Jewish  proletariat,  for  its 
economic  improvement  by  means  of  association 
and  solidarity,  for  well-directed  education  of 
children,  and  for  the  instruction  of  the  women. 
They  give  the  young  students  a  goal  for  their 
efforts  and  an  ideal  in  life.  They  preach  the 
duty  of  leading  a  faultless,  spiritual  life,  the 
rejection  of  a  crude  materialism,  into  which  the 
assimilation  Jews,  on  account  of  the  want  of  a 
worthy  ideal,  are  only  too  apt  to  sink,  and  strict 
self-control  in  word  and  deed.  They  found  ath¬ 
letic  societies  in  order  to  promote  the  long 
neglected  physical  development  of  the  rising 
generation.  They  give  a  new  impulse  to  the  cele¬ 
bration  of  Jewish  historical  feasts  and  memorial 
days.  In  many  instances  they  even  make  them¬ 
selves  outwardly  conspicuous  by  wearing  insig¬ 
nia.  The  Zionist  regards  it  as  contemptible  to 
conceal  his  nationality.  He  wishes  to  be  recog¬ 
nized  as  a  Jew,  and  as  he  always  behaves  himself 


33 


ZIONISM 


in  a  natural,  unaffected  way,  plays  no  comedy 
of  imitation,  wishes  to  deceive  nobody  about  his 
extraction  and  identity,  intrudes  upon  no  one 
under  a  false  flag,  his  relations  to  his  Christian 
neighbors  and  fellow-countrymen  are  sounder, 
truer,  more  frank  and  dignified  than  those  of 
the  assimilation  Jew,  who  makes  painful  and 
useless  efforts,  which  disgust  every  Christian 
possessing  a  modicum  of  good  taste,  to  hide  the 
fact  that  he  is  a  Jew. 

“(4.)  Preparatory  steps  to  obtain  the  con¬ 
sent  of  the  governments  necessary  to  achieve  the 
aims  of  Zionism.” 

Several  of  the  governments  whose  opinion  will 
eventually  be  decisive  in  the  matter  have  been, 
by  means  of  memorials,  reliably  informed  of  the 
aims  of  Zionism ;  and  there  has  been  no  want 
of  very  important  encouragements  and  promis¬ 
ing  expressions  of  sympathy  with  its  tendencies. 

For  the  moment  the  committee  of  action  is 
trying  to  obtain  from  Turkey  a  charter  for  the 
colonization  of  such  land  in  Palestine  as  can 


34 


ZIONISM 


be  disposed  of,  and  which  at  present  is  lying 
waste,  and  for  the  opening  of  its  neglected  re¬ 
sources.  The  exploiting  of  such  a  charter  is 
not  possible  without  considerable  sums  of  money. 

In  order  to  be  armed  financially  for  the  time  that 
Turkey  will  accord  such  a  charter,  the  second 
Zionist  congress  (1898)  decided  to  found  a  na-t^ 
tional  Jewish  bank  institute,  the  “Jewish  Colo¬ 
nial  Trust,”  with  its  headquarters  in  London. 
This  resolution  was  carried  out  the  following 
year  (1899).  The  bank  has  been  brought  into 
being.  Its  capital  in  shares  is  two  million  pounds 
sterling.  It  can,  by  the  statutes,  start  business 
when  one  eighth  of  this  capital,  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  pounds  sterling,  has  been  actually 
paid  up.  This  has  already  been  done. 

Another  financial  instrument  of  Zionism  is 
the  ^^National  Fund,”  created  by  the  fifth  con-*^ 
gress  (1901),  which  is  raised  by  voluntary  sub¬ 
scription  and  which  is  to  amount  to  two  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  pounds  sterling.  The  half  of 
this  sum  is  to  be  devoted  to  the  purchase  of  land 


35 


ZIONISM 


in  Palestine,  the  other  half  to  remain  an  intansri- 
ble  common  property  of  the  Jewish  people, 
which  will  by  means  of  compound  interest  and 
gifts  continually  increase,  so  that  at  important 
junctures  the  interest  may  be  used  for  great 
national  purposes. 

V. 

I  have  taken  pains  to  show,  in  as  brief  and 
as  objective  a  manner  as  possible,  what  Zionism 
is,  what  it  desires  to  do,  how  it  came  into  being, 
and  how  it  has  developed  up  to  the  present.  I 
have  also  repeatedly  mentioned  that  its  most  vio¬ 
lent  opponents  have  aiisen  from  the  Jewish  com¬ 
munity. 

Many  of  them  content  themselves  with  libeling 
and  insulting  the  leaders  of  the  Zionist  move¬ 
ment.  This  kind  of  hostility  they  who  are  vili¬ 
fied  can  afford  to  despise.  Men  who,  without 
expecting  the  slightest  advantage  to  themselves, 
out  of  the  purest,  most  unselfish  love  for  the 
unhappy  ones  of  their  race,  out  of  reverence  for 
their  forefathers,  out  of  a  general  spirit  of  phil- 

36 


ZIONISM 


anthropy,  have  made  the  greatest  sacrifices  in 
money,  time,  strength,  and  health,  in  order  to 
elevate  their  people  and  to  free  millions  of  inno¬ 
cent,  persecuted  men  from  the  bitterest  misery, 
have  the  right  smilingly  to  shrug  their  shoulders 
when  irresponsible  fanatics  or  pitiable  paid 
scribes  reproach  them  with  self-interest  or  with 
vanity. 

Besides  these  opponents  of  a  lower  type,  there 
are  others  who  do  not  merely  lie  and  slander, 
but  also  seek  to  argue.  They  delight  in  com¬ 
paring  the  apostles  of  Zionism  with  the  false 
Messiahs  like  the  notorious  Sabbathai  Levi,  who 
have  appeared  only  too  often  in  Jewish  history, 
and  who  have  always  done  the  greatest  mischief 
to  the  Jewish  people  they  have  deceived.  To 
compare  Zionism  with  the  vagaries  or  impostures 
of  false  Messiahs  of  the  Sabbathai  Levi  kind, 
presupposes  great  foolishness  or  great  bad 
faith.  Zionism  is  precisely  characterized  by  the  ^ 
complete  absence  of  any  mystical  element.  It 
promises  its  adherents  no  miracles ;  on  the  con- 


37 


ZIONISM 


trary,  it  continually  impresses  on  them  that 
their  emancipation  from  a  situation  they  find  in¬ 
tolerable  can  only  be  the  result  of  their  own 
work,  the  fruit  of  their  long,  strenuous,  and 
combined  efforts. 

People  declare  Zionism  to  be  a  dream,  and 
deny  that  its  practical  realization  is  possible. 
To  objections  of  this  category  the  Zionists  have 
a  hundred  times  given  a  sufficient  answer.  This 
simple  negative  criticism  can  be  passed  over. 
Its  only  real  refutation  is  in  deeds,  such  as  the 
Zionists  have  already  performed  and  as  they 
intend  further  to  perform. 

The  one  point  which  probably  forever  ex¬ 
cludes  the  possibility  of  an  understanding  be¬ 
tween  Zionist  and  non-Zionist  Jews  is  the  ques¬ 
tion  of  the  Jewish  nationality.  Whoever  main- 
tains  and  believes  that  the  Jews  are  not  a  nation 
can  indeed  be  no  Zionist ;  he  cannot  j  oin  a  move¬ 
ment  which  is  only  justified  when  it  is  admitted 
that  it  desires  to  create  normal  conditions 
of  existence  for  a  people  living  and  suffering 

38 


ZIONISM 


under  abnormal  conditions.  He  who,  on  the 
contrary,  is  convinced  that  the  Jews  are  a  peo¬ 
ple  must  necessarily  become  Zionist,  as  only  the 
return  to  their  own  country  can  save  the  every¬ 
where  hated,  persecuted,  and  oppressed  Jewish 
nation  from  physical  and  intellectual  destruc¬ 
tion. 

Many  Jews,  especially  those  of  the  West, 
have,  in  their  heart  of  hearts,  completely  broken 
with  Judaism,  and  they  will  probably  soon  do 
so  openly,  and  if  they  do  not  break  away,  their 
children  or  grandchildren  will.  These  desire 
to  be  entirely  absorbed  by  their  Christian  fellow- 
countrymen.  They  resent  it  as  a  great  annoy¬ 
ance  when  other  Jews  proclaim  that  they  are  a 
people  apart,  and  desire  to  bring  about  an  un¬ 
equivocal  separation  between  themselves  and  the 
other  nations.  Their  great  and  constant  fear 
is  to  be  denounced  as  strangers  in  the  land  of 
their  birth,  of  which  they  are  free  citizens. 
They  fear  that  this  will  be  more  than  ever  the 
case,  if  a  large  section  of  the  Jewish  people 


39 


ZIONISM 


Openly  claim  for  themselves  rights  as  an  auton¬ 
omous  nation,  and  still  worse,  if  anywhere  in 
the  world  a  political  and  intellectual  center  of 
Judaism  should  really  be  created,  in  which  mil¬ 
lions  of  Jews  would  be  grouped  together,  united 
as  a  nation. 

All  these  feelings  on  the  part  of  the  assimila¬ 
tion  Jews  are  comprehensible.  From  their 
standpoint  they  are  justified.  These  Jews, 
however,  have  no  right  to  expect  that  Zionism 
should  for  their  sake  commit  suicide.  The  Jews 
who  are  happy  and  contented  in  the  land  of 
their  birth,  and  who  indignantly  reject  the  sug¬ 
gestion  of  abandoning  it,  are  about  a  sixth  of 
the  Jewish  nation,  say  two  millions  out  of 
twelve.  The  other  five  sixths,  or  ten  millions, 
feel  themselves  profoundly  unhappy  in  the 
countries  where  they  reside,  and  they  have  every 
reason  for  doing  so.  These  ten  millions  cannot 
be  called  upon  to  submit  forever  unresistingly  to 
their  thraldom,  and  to  renounce  every  effort  for 
redemption  from  their  misery,  merely  in  order 


40 


ZIONISM 


that  the  comfort  of  two  million  happy  and  con¬ 
tented  Jews  may  not  be  disturbed. 

The  Zionists  are,  moreover,  firmly  convinced 
that  the  misgivings  of  the  assimilation  Jews  are 
unfounded.  The  reassembling  of  the  Jewish 
people  in  Palestine  will  not  have  the  conse¬ 
quences  which  they  fear.  When  there  is  again 
a  Jewish  country,  the  Jews  will  have  the  choice 
of  emigrating  thither,  or  of  remaining  in  their 
present  home.  Many  will  doubtless  remain,  and 
will  prove  by  their  choice  that  they  prefer  the 
land  of  their  birth  to  their  kindred  and  to  their 
national  soil.  It  is  barely  possible  that  the 
Anti-Semites  will  still  throw  the  scornful  and 
perfidious  “stranger!”  in  their  face.  But  the 
real  Christians  among  their  fellow-countrymen, 
those  who  think  and  feel  according  to  the  teach¬ 
ing  and  examples  of  the  Holy  Writ,  will  be  con¬ 
vinced  that  they  do  not  regard  themselves  as 
strangers  in  the  land  of  their  birth,  and  will  then 
rightly  comprehend  the  real  meaning  of  their 
voluntary  renunciation  of  a  return  to  a  land 


41 


ZIONISM 


of  the  Jews,  and  of  their  fidelity  to  their  homes 
and  to  their  Christian  neighbors. 

The  Zionists  know  that  they  have  undertaken 
a  work  of  unexampled  difficulty.  Never  before 
has  the  effort  been  made  to  transplant,  peace¬ 
fully,  in  a  short  space  of  time,  to  another  soil, 
several  million  people  from  various  countries ; 
never  has  it  been  attempted  to  transform  mil¬ 
lions  of  physically  degenerate  proletarians, 
without  trade  or  profession,  into  agriculturists 
and  cattle  breeders,  to  bring  townbred  hucksters 
and  trades  people,  agents,  and  men  of  sedentary 
occupation  again  into  contact  with  the  plough 
and  the  mother  earth.  It  will  be  necessary  to  ac¬ 
custom  Jews  of  different  origins  to  one  another, 
to  train  them  practically  to  national  unity,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  overcome  the  superhuman 
obstacles  of  difference  of  language,  unequal  civ¬ 
ilization,  and  of  the  manners  of  thought,  preju¬ 
dices,  likes,  and  dislikes  of  foreign  nations, 
brought  severally  from  the  lands  of  their  birth. 

What  gives  the  Zionists  the  courage  to  begin 
this  labor  of  Hercules  is  the  conviction  that  they 


42 


ZIONISM 


are  doing  a  necessary  and  useful  work,  a  work 
of  love  and  civilization,  a  work  of  justice  and 
wisdom.  They  desire  to  save  eight  to  ten  mil¬ 
lions  of  their  kindred  from  intolerable  suffering. 
They  desire  to  free  the  nations  among  whom 
they  now  vegetate  from  a  presence  which  is 
considered  disagreeable.  They  wish  to  deprive 
Anti-Semitism — which  everywhere  lowers  public 
morals  and  develops  the  very  worst  instincts — 
of  its  victim.  They  wish  to  make  unquestionable 
producers  out  of  the  Jews  at  present  reproached 
with  being  parasites.  They  desire  to  fertilize 
with  their  sweat  and  till  with  their  hands  a  coun¬ 
try  that  is  to-day  a  desert,  until  it  is  again  the 
flowering  garden  it  has  once  been.  Thus  will 
Zionism  in  an  equal  degree  serve  the  unhappy 
Jew  and  the  Christian  peoples,  civilization  and 
the  economy  of  the  world ;  and  the  services  which 
it  can  render,  and  wishes  to  render,  are  great 
enough  to  justify  its  hope  that  the  Christian 
world,  too,  will  appreciate  them,  and  support 
the  movement  with  its  active  sympathy. 


43 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


IN  EUROPE 


THE  TRUE  NATURE  OF  ANTI¬ 
SEMITISM  IN  EUROPE 


ANTI-SEMITISM  would  be  simply  ridicu¬ 
lous  if  it  were  not  so  terribly  in  earnest. 
People  who  make  that  word  a  war  cry  upon  a 

whole  race  ought  to  know  its  meaning,  especially 
if  it  is  to  express  the  chief  reason  for  their  hos¬ 
tility.  Before  they  prefix  the  ‘‘anti”  to  a  word 
they  should  be  sure  that  they  understand  the 
“pro,”  lest  they  be  found  to  fight  shadows  mere¬ 
ly?  specters  of  their  own  creation.  But  how  far 
is  this  the  case.?  How  many  ever  tried  to  learn 
the  sense  of  the  designation  under  which  they 
have  enrolled  themselves  ?  Suppose  we  ask, 
“What  does  Semitism  mean?”  Only  this,  must 
be  our  answer, — ^that  it  is  a  summing  up  of  the 
ruling  dispositions,  habits,  mental  endowments. 


47 


ANTI-SEMITISM 

and  moral  peculiarities  of  all  the  races  com¬ 
prised  under  the  name  of  Semites,  so  named  from 
their  supposed  descent  from  the  eldest  of  the 
three  sons  of  Noah.  So  ineradicable  are  these 
features  supposed  to  be  that,  no  matter  where  the 
races  have  lived  or  are  now  living,  no  matter 
what  stage  of  civilization  they  have  passed 
through  or  have  reached  now,  no  matter  what 
influence  non-Semitic  races  have  exercised  upon 
them,  they  remain  essentially  the  same.  What 
are  these  features.?  Who  will  formulate  the  pre¬ 
cise  standard  by  which  a  descendant  of  Shem  is 
unfailingly  known  and  set  apart  from  those 
of  Ham  or  Japhet.?  When  we  consider  that  we 
are  pointed  back  for  the  meaning  of  Semite  to 
antediluvian  times,  that  is  to  say,  to  one  of  the 
oldest  myths  of  the  world,  we  must  admit  that  it 
would  indeed  be  the  wonder  of  wonders  if  a  large 
section  of  mankind  have  a  family  likeness  so 
clear  that  they  are  marked  off  from  the  rest. 
And  this,  despite  the  long  ages  that  have  passed 
since  the  supposed  separation  of  the  sons  of 

48 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


Noah  and  their  wide  dispersion;  despite  their 
triumphs  and  defeats  in  wars,  in  state  building, 
and  church  formation;  despite  the  wide  diver¬ 
sity  between  them  in  their  literature,  their  phil¬ 
osophy,  their  art,  their  trades  and  industries. 
Are  the  Semites  still  characterized  by  the  same 
gifts  and  tendencies  of  mind  and  heart,  ruled  by 
the  same  passions,  subject  to  the  same  limita¬ 
tions,  as  were  their  ancestors  in  all  their  genera¬ 
tions  ? 

Among  them  there  is  a  fraction,  and  that 
fraction  again  scattered  over  vast  areas,  in  vari¬ 
ous  states  of  civilization,  and  under  diversified 
kinds  of  governments,  enjoying  liberty  and 
rights  of  citizenship  in  the  one,  and  groaning 
under  relentless  oppression  in  the  other, — are 
they  still  none  other  than  Semites?  Are  they 
so  permeated  with  Semitic  features  that  they 
can  never  amalgamate  with  their  surroundings 
and  become  full-weighted  citizens  of  the  state 
where  they  pitch  their  tents, — offer  them  what 
inducements  you  may, — ^but  must  be  kept  at 


49 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


arms  length  and  treated  as  suspects  ?  Has 
nature  lost  all  her  power  in  this  instance  and 
become  faithless  to  herself?  Will  the  Hebrew 
child  not  love  the  land  of  its  birth  and  feel  the 
kinship  with  the  people  whose  language  and 
mode  of  life  become  its  own?  But  why  heap  up 
improbabilities  and  impossibilities?  The  desig¬ 
nation  fastened  upon  us  as  a  stigma  was  a  fraud 
from  the  beginning,  a  conscious  fraud  and  a 
malicious  invention.  It  was  “conceived  in  mis¬ 
chief  and  brought  forth  in  iniquity.”  What 
was  meant  was  not  anti-Semitism,  but  anti-Juda¬ 
ism;  but  that  name  had  to  be  avoided  because 
it  implies  hostility  to  a  religion  and  a  creed ;  and 
that,  again,  might  be  construed  as  springing 
from  an  awakened  zeal  for  the  instigator’s  own 
Church;  a  suspicion  they  could  not  permit  to 
rest  upon  them.  No,  it  is  not  the  Jew’s  religion 
that  makes  him  obnoxious  and  a  danger  to  the 
state,  but  it  is  his  descent  from  the  eldest  son  of 
Noah.  True,  the  Jews  have  at  no  time  adopted 
it  as  a  national  name.  “Semitic”  is  of  compar- 


50 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


atively  recent  date,  an  abstract  word  intended 
merely  for  scientific  classification,  never  meant 
for  discrimination  of  any  portion  of  the  Semitic 
races,  or  to  become  a  hissing  and  a  byword  or  a 
mask  for  robbers  of  human  rights  and  destroyers 
of  human  happiness. 

The  victims  of  this  crusade  are  not  a  nameless 
horde  for  whom  a  designation  had  to  be  coined; 
they  are  known  to  history  for  three  thousand 
years  as  Hebrews,  Israelites,  Jews,  and  they  have 
no  mind  to  exchange  these  names  for  any  other. 
But  a  new  “Hep  Hep”  was  wanted,  and  so 
“Semites”  was  hauled  from  the  world  of  books, 
disfigured,  and  fastened  upon  the  Jewish  gabar¬ 
dine  in  noble  emulation  of  the  barbarism  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  The  more  senseless,  the  more  wel¬ 
come  it  was  as  a  bugbear  to  frighten  the  popu¬ 
lace  and  to  stir  into  flames  the  sparks  of  fanati¬ 
cism  which  are  always  smouldering  in  the  hearts 
of  the  vulgar,  whether  of  low  degree  or  high  de¬ 
gree,  worldly  or  ghostly. 

The  strangest  thing,  however,  in  this  learned 


51 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


falsification  is  that  it  should  have  succeeded 
so  well  with  people  calling  themselves  Christians 
and  clinging  to  that  name  often  after  they 
have  given  up  all  its  historic  substance.  Is 
Christianity  not  purely  Semitic  at  the  core  ?  Is  it 
not  based  upon  the  Semitic  conception  of  the  re¬ 
lation  between  man  and  his  Creator  The  great 
efforts  to  liberalize  and  rationalize  the  Church 
which  the  last  century  witnessed,  up  to  Profes¬ 
sor  Harnack’s  recent  attempt  to  sum  up  “Das 
Wesen  des  Christ enthums,” — what  are  all  these 
but  endeavors  to  free  it  from  foreign  accretions 
and  envelopments  and  to  bring  its  Semitic  char¬ 
acter  into  greater  prominence.^ 

It  is  the  only  Asiatic  conception  of  religion 
that  has  subdued  Europe  and  America,  and  that 
still  holds  undisputed  sway  over  all  its  diverse 
nationalities.  The  very  name  which  symbolizes 
to  them  all  that  is  noblest,  purest,  and  most 
blessed,  points  to  that  source  as  unfailingly  as 
the  needle  of  the  compass  to  the  poles.  Harnack 
claims  that  Christianity  is  not  one  religion 

52 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


amongst  others,  but  The  Religion,  the  only  one 
fulfilling  all  the  conditions  of  its  highest  ideal. 
The  Being  in  whom  that  fulness  of  light  was 
revealed, — was  he  not  a  Semite  of  the  Semites? 
Did  he  ever  deny  his  origin  ?  Christianity  means 
Messianity,  and  the  whole  idea  of  a  Mashiach, — 
the  anointed,  namely,  anointed  ruler, — is  most 
intensely  national  and,  therefore,  intensely 
Semitic, — from  which  indisputable  fact  it  fol¬ 
lows  that  the  loftiest  conception  of  religion  came 
to  the  world  from  that  source.  Thence  came  the 
Bible, — ^the  book  of  the  world  which  has  been 
translated  into  every  living  tongue  and  dialect, 
and  to  the  elucidation  of  which  hosts  of  scholars 
still  devote  their  lives.  Painting,  sculpture, 
music,  poetry,  have  attempted  their  highest 
flights  under  its  inspiration.  From  countless 
pulpits  its  moral  and  religious  truths  are  ex¬ 
pounded,  week  after  week,  and  on  every  great 
occasion  of  national  significance, — in  whatever 
part  of  Christendom  it  may  occur, — the  Songs 
of  Zion  are  awakened  as  the  fittest  expressions 

53 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


of  the  prevailing  sentiment.  The  Psalter  is 
the  most  wonderful  of  existing  books, — at  home 
alike  in  the  palace  of  the  king  and  the  cottage 
of  the  peasant,  the  inexhaustible  theme  of  our 
masters  of  music.  Noeldeke,  Protestant  profes¬ 
sor  at  the  University  of  Strasburg,  one  of  the 
great  lights  of  Semitic  scholarship,  declares  that 
“by  the  side  of  the  Psalms  all  other  religious 
hymns  appear  as  pale  imitations  merely.”  On 
that  field  were  gathered  the  sheaves  which  a  mas¬ 
ter  hand  has  wound  together  into  the  One  Uni¬ 
versal  Prayer,  in  which  all  Churches  join  with 
one  accord.  And  the  Universal  Day  of  Rest, — 
that  one  sure  blessing  of  the  laboring  man, — 
whence  did  it  come.?^  What  other  legislator  had 
the  divine  audacity  to  make  its  observance  one 
of  the  foundation  laws  of  his  constitution,  and 
to  give  it  precedence,  even  over  all  moral  enact¬ 
ments  ? 

Professor  R.  F.  Grau  of  the  conservative 
school  of  theology  writes: — 

“God  is  a  living,  holy,  loving  Being.  He  is 


54 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


not  first  and  foremost  to  be  scientifically  com¬ 
prehended,  but  worshipped  and  revered  in  the 
heart,  and  because  He  is  such  a  Being,  the 
Semites  had  to  be  chosen  as  His  apostles  to  the 
whole  world.  For  they  had  a  heart  for  Him  in 
the  beginning.  .  .  .  The  Semite  has  the  re¬ 
ligion  of  the  Infinite,  and  as  this  is  the  perfect 
religion,  .  .  .  the  Church,  as  the  Community 
of  Christ,  has  sprung  from  the  Semitic  mustard 
seed,  although  at  present  myriads  of  Indo-ger- 
manics  dwell  under  the  branches  of  the  tree.” 

In  the  face  of  admissions  like  these  by  men 
who  have  a  right  to  be  heard  in  the  matter,  and 
considering  that  the  tree  can  never  change  the 
nature  of  the  root  from  which  it  sprang,  the  con¬ 
clusion  is  not  unwarranted  that  “anti-Semitic” 
is  a  synonym  for  “anti-Christian.” 

Its  success  is  due  to  the  still  persistent  preju¬ 
dice  against  the  Jews  among  so  many  Chris¬ 
tians, — all  their  professions  to  the  contrary  not¬ 
withstanding.  And  it  continues  for  several 
reasons.  One  is  its  long  duration;  it  has  lasted 


55 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


for  ages  and  is  ingrained  in  their  feelings  and 
ideas.  What  if  it  be  shown  ever  so  clearly  that 
it  is  unjust,  unreasonable,  yea,  even  unchristian  1 
— that  will  not  materially  change  the  temper 
of  the  great  masses  of  the  people.  The  com¬ 
mon  man  is  rarely  swayed  by  the  force  of  argu¬ 
ments  ;  the  power  of  a  principle,  so  weighty 
with  the  thinkers,  is  of  no  consequence  to  him. 
He  belongs  to  the  material  world,  and  to  make 
good  his  place  in  it  is  the  aim  toward  which  all 
his  energies  are  bent.  For  things  spiritual  he 
has  neither  time  nor  capacity.  He  is  ruled  by 
the  sentiments  which  were  implanted  in  him  in 
his  youth  and  by  his  immediate  surroundings. 
All  thinking  must  be  done  for  him ;  all  new  ideas 
must  be  presented  to  him,  as  it  were,  ready  made 
and  in  tangible  form.  He  does  not  push  himself 
forward,  but  must  be  led  onward  by  hands  that 
understand  him  and  his  ways.  But  in  this  in¬ 
stance,  his  guides  are  not  particularly  anxious 
to  bring  about  a  change  for  the  better, — even  if 
we  suppose  that  they  consider  the  liberation 

56 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


from  prejudice  against  the  Jews  a  betterment. 
They  have  their  own  theological  difficulty  to 
contend  with.  The  Jews  are  still  unconverted, 
and  the  missions  established  and  maintained  for 
the  purpose  of  winning  them  over  can  show  no 
better  results  now  than  in  the  past.  The  chief 
controversy  between  the  Church  and  Israel 
stands  to-day  where  it  stood  when  it  was  first 
raised  at  Jerusalem  eighteen  centuries  ago.  A 
judicial  sentence  of  a  court  at  Jerusalem  has 
grown  into  a  pivotal  point  on  which,  as  the 
Church  declares,  turns  the  salvation  of  mankind 
for  time  and  eternity;  and  if  she  is  right,  the 
Jews  must  be  wrong.  Since  that  fatal  occur¬ 
rence,  Christianity,  in  one  form  or  another,  has 
conquered  Europe  and  America,  and  has  planted 
outposts  in  almost  every  part  of  the  earth,  but 
has  not  been  able  to  subdue  the  Jew.  Every 
conceivable  means  to  make  him  surrender  has 
been  tried,  including  that  of  the  jailor  and  the 
executioner  and  all  the  horrors  that  lie  between 
them, — expulsion,  pillage,  social  degradation, 


57 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


impaling  in  ghettos,  and  what  not — but  in 
vain.  The  same  policy  is  continued  to  this  day 
as  far  as  the  present  more  civilized  state  of  the 
Christians  permits;  but  still  in  vain.  So  far 
are  their  persecutors  from  having  brought  the 
Jews  to  their  knees,  that  the  self-consciousness 
of  the  race,  as  a  whole,  has  deepened ;  and  their 
advance  in  general  culture  enables  them  to 
measure  swords,  intellectually,  with  their  ac¬ 
cusers  and  to  give  a  reason  for  the  faith  that  is 
in  them. 

All  the  conditions  of  this  interminable  conflict 
are  against  them.  In  numbers  they  are  a  van¬ 
ishing  minority,  and  still  more  weakened  by 
their  dispersion  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  un¬ 
organized,  without  any  ecclesiastical  authority 
in  their  Church  that  could  direct  them  or  act  in 
their  name.  Every  individual  Jew  must  face 
the  world’s  hostility  single-handed,  and  be,  re¬ 
ligiously,  his  own  priest,  his  own  pope.  Allies 
he  has  none,  advocates  of  his  cause  are  few  and 
far  between.  The  favors  of  his  friends  are 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


often  more  humiliating  than  the  attacks  of  his 
enemies.  Still  he  holds  his  own,  and  if  for  the 
last  century  or  so  he  has  carried  on  a  reforma¬ 
tion  of  his  ancient  rituals,  he  has  done  so  from 
his  own  initiative  and  in  his  own  way,  which  is 
not  that  into  which  it  has  been  tried  so  long  to 
force  or  to  lure  him.  At  the  same  time  a  revi¬ 
val  of  Jewish  literature  has  taken  place  which 
not  only  has  brought  to  light  the  long-forgotten 
treasures  of  the  past,  but  has  shown  the  large 
part  the  Jews  have  in  the  general  progress  of 
mankind.  The  ecclesia  triumphant  has  no  vic¬ 
tory  to  record  in  this  section  of  her  battlefields, 
and  it  is  not  in  ordinary  human  nature  frankly 
to  admit  a  defeat  in  such  an  unequal  struggle. 
Only  one  had  a  right  to  expect  that  a  Church 
that  claims  to  have  regenerated  the  human  race 
and  to  have  lifted  the  slave  of  his  blind  instincts 
into  “the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of 
God”  would  have  risen  superior  to  the  common 
weakness.  Instead  of  that,  almost  throughout 
Christendom,  the  crusade  against  the  Jews  is 

59 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


being  preached  and  the  policy  of  repression 
loudly  demanded. 

On  what  ground.?  It  is  said  that  they  dom¬ 
inate  everywhere, — in  finance,  in  law  courts,  in 
politics,  in  art,  in  literature,  in  the  press,  in 
trade  and  manufacture.  But  how  do  they 
achieve  this  astounding  feat.?  How  do  the 
Jews  succeed  in  so  lording  it  over  the  immense 
majority.?  By  witchcraft.?  Is  it  by  magic  that  a 
few  bankers  and  brokers  keep  all  their  competi¬ 
tors  in  subjugation  and  handle  them  at  their  will 
and  to  their  own  profit.?  Is  it  by  sorcery  that 
they  force  their  way  to  the  universities  and 
academies .?  Are  they  in  possession  of  secret 
formulas  by  which  they  can  direct  the  currents 
of  trade  at  their  will.?  Recently,  loud  com¬ 
plaints  were  raised  in  several  of  the  German 
state  parliaments  that  there  were  too  many  Jew¬ 
ish  judges  and  lawyers  in  their  lands,  and  the 
governments  were  exhorted  to  put  an  end  to  the 
scandal.  No  charges  of  incompetency  or  ex¬ 
ploitation  were  raised  against  the  Hebrews  that 

6o 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


“handle  the  law.”  Only  it  was  declared  that  a 
Christian  shrunk  from  taking  an  oath  at  the 
hand  of  a  Jewish  lawyer.  If  this  be  so,  how  is 
it  that  the  people  go  to  them  in  numbers  that 
excite  the  envy  of  their  non- Jewish  colleagues.^ 
All  the  statements  about  the  alleged  power  of 
the  Jews  are  ridiculous  exaggerations,  trumped 
up  to  scare  the  imagination  of  the  thoughtless, 
as  has  been  proved  over  and  over  again.  But 
even  reduced  to  their  true  measure,  they  prove, 
not  the  possession  of  magic,  but  of  sound¬ 
ness  of  mind,  of  unimpaired  energy,  and  of  all 
the  other  needful  conditions  for  success,  which 
the  Jews  have  kept  intact  despite  all  the  at¬ 
tempts  made  to  crush  the  unbelievers  into  the 
dust.  The  outcry  against  them  is  their  vindica¬ 
tion;  people  do  not  fear  weaklings,  do  not  raise 
alarms  against  perils  which  can  be  pushed  aside 
by  an  effort  of  the  will.  The  few  must  own  in¬ 
herent  sources  of  strength  if  the  many  resort  to 
the  coward’s  weapon  of  lies  and  slander.  And 
in  this  instance  the  admission  of  the  truth  is  an 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


implied  homage  to  the  religion  which  the  victors 
in  the  unequal  struggle  profess  and  defend. 
For  it  is  indisputable  that  this  is  the  source  to 
which  the  formation  of  the  Jewish  mind  and 
heart  must  be  attributed.  Let  me  cite,  for  one 
proof,  the  admission  of  the  most  persistent  and 
most  powerful  oppressor  of  the  Jews, — the  pro¬ 
curator  of  the  Russian  synod.  Half  the  num¬ 
ber  of  all  Hebrews  are  subjects  of  Russia.  They 
came  under  her  dominion  when  she  conquered 
and  incorporated  the  Polish  provinces ;  they  are 
kept  there  under  the  most  stringent  laws,  and 
life  is  made  to  them  as  burdensome  as  possible. 
“The  Pale”  is  a  gigantic  ghetto  where  the  old¬ 
est  form  of  rabbinism  prevails  to  this  day.  Yet 
the  same  fear  of  the  superiority  of  the  Jewish 
mind  haunts  the  government;  it  is  the  alleged 
reason  for  practically  closing  up  all  the  avenues 
of  the  higher  education  for  them.  Only  three 
per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  students  are  ad¬ 
mitted  to  the  universities  and  to  the  technical 
schools.  But  more  than  a  hundred  thousand 


62 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


common  soldiers  are  drafted  from  the  Jews  into 
the  armies  and  sent  to  all  parts  of  the  gigantic 
empire,  kept  there  during  the  best  part  of  their 
lives,  without  any  prospect  of  promotion,  and 
often  going  only  to  die  in  the  defense  of  terri¬ 
tories  which,  if  they  were  civilians,  they  would 
not  be  permitted  to  enter.  The  Russian  Tor- 
quemada,  not  long  ago,  openly  declared  that  not 
a  single  Jew  should  be  permitted  to  settle 
amongst  the  peasantry,  even  within  the  Pale, 
because  he  would  be  the  only  sober  man  amongst 
a  population  that  cannot  resist  the  temptations 
of  strong  drink.  Strange  spectacle  indeed ! 
Men  banished  from  places  where  they  wish  to 
live  because  they  are  too  good  for  their  sur¬ 
roundings  !  forced  to  remain  where  they  can 
hardly  eke  out  a  miserable  living.  The  ques¬ 
tion,  surely,  is  justified.  How  did  that  poverty- 
stricken  mass  of  oppressed  people  succeed  in 
preserving  its  freedom  from  a  national  vice  in  a 
country  where  its  ancestors  have  dwelt  for  long 
generations.?  Can  a  great  virtue  be  maintained 

63 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


by  sorcery?  The  common  experience  is  that  of 
the  poet — 

“Misery  doth  bravest  mind  abate.” 

What  but  their  religion  made  them  proof 
against  the  arrows  of  a  fate  which,  for  duration 
and  cruelty,  is  without  a  parallel  in  history ! 
This  conclusion  is  further  corroborated  by  the 
fact  that  the  same  virtue  of  sobriety  character¬ 
izes  them  everywhere,  and  makes  them  an  object 
of  envy  to  their  non- Jewish  neighbors,  nay, 
forces  the  honest  temperance  advocate  to  hold 
them  up  before  his  Christian  audiences  as  exam¬ 
ples  to  shame  them  into  going  and  doing  like¬ 
wise;  rather,  let  me  say,  into  staying  at  home 
and  doing  likewise.  For  one  of  the  witchcraft 
mysteries  of  Judaism  is  that  its  home  is  not  in 
the  church,  but  that  the  church  is  in  the  home. 
The  Jew’s  salvation  is  in  nowise  dependent  upon 
rabbi  and  synagogue,  but  upon  wife  and  chil¬ 
dren.  They  are  his  congregation  to  whom  he 
ministers  as  priest  in  fulfilment  of  the  great 
charter  word  of  dedication,  “Ye  shall  be  unto 

64 


ANT  IS  EM  I T  IS  M 


me  a  kingdom  of  priests  and  a  holy  nation.”  The 
deepest  roots  of  the  Jewish  faith  rest  and  are 
nourished  in  the  domestic  soil.  The  synagogue 
has  nothing  to  offer  to  the  faithful  which  he 
cannot  find  in  his  own  tent.  Ten  men  gathered 
together  with  a  Sepher  Tora  (scroll  of  the  Mo¬ 
saic  law)  in  their  midst,  form  a  Kahal  Hakodesh 
(sacred  body).  No  man  becomes  a  drunkard 
with  wife  and  children  and  aged  parents  near 
him  for  guardian  angels.  The  greatest  diffi¬ 
culty  the  Jewish  reformation  has  to  face  is  what 
to  substitute  for  the  old  ceremonials  where  they 
have  become  impracticable,  and  thus  to  preserve 
the  essentially  domestic  character  of  the  ancient 
faith.  Is  it  thinkable  that  the  Jew  would  be 
less  objectionable  to  his  surroundings  were  he  to 
lose  his  sturdy  horror  of  intemperance,  and  thus 
“assimilate”  more  freely  with  his  neighbors  of 
different  faiths  It  is  not  thinkable  when  we 
consider  the  great  efforts  made  by  Christians 
everywhere  to  redeem  their  people  from  their 
bondage  to  strong  drink  and  the  misery  result- 

65 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


ing  from  it.  The  Jew  is  the  natural  ally  of  the 
temperance  advocates;  and  if  he  is  not  found 
in  their  ranks,  it  is  simply  because  he  never  knew 
from  experience  the  need  of  that  reformation. 

And  never  will  he  know,  as  long  as  his  passion¬ 
ate  fondness  for  home  and  his  longing  for  fam¬ 
ily  love  abide  within  him.  At  present,  this,  gen¬ 
erally  speaking,  is  still  the  case ;  the  poorest  and 
least  cultivated  classes  are  not  excepted;  nay, 
just  in  that  class  it  is  one  of  the  most  noteworthy 
features.  If  the  uncouth  immigrant  from  East¬ 
ern  Europe  stoops  to  the  lowest  kinds  of  ped¬ 
dling,  or,  for  a  mere  pittance,  wastes  his  life  in 
the  stifling  sweatshop ;  if  he  is  not  very  scrupu¬ 
lous  in  his  dealings  with  his  transient  patrons, 
and  does  not  hold  city  ordinances  as  inviolable  as 
those  of  the  “Shulchan  Aruch”  (code  of  ceremo¬ 
nials),  the  central  motive  is  his  ever  present 
thought  of  his  family;  even  when  he  has  not  yet 
scraped  together  enough  pennies  to  pay  for 
their  fare  to  the  new  home,  they  are  con¬ 
stantly  with  him  in  his  mind.  This  is  not 

66 


ANTI-SEMn  ISM 


offered  as  a  defense  for  over-reaching  and 
cannot  be  allowed  by  a  magistrate  as  a  plea 
for  law-breaking;  but  it  is  offered  to  the 
unprejudiced  reader  in  compliance  with  Spi¬ 
noza’s  golden  rule :  Human  errors  must  not 
be  ridiculed  and  condemned,  but  understood. 
Si  duo  faciunt  idem^  non  est  idem.  This  wise 
caution  is  the  more  to  be  heeded  in  the  present 
instance,  as,  from  the  same  source,  devotion 
to  home  life,  springs  another  fine  feature  of 
J ewry ;  go  down  in  the  scale  as  deep  as  you  may, 
they  are  an  industrious,  toilsome  class  of  people, 
often  turning  their  narrow  homes  into  work¬ 
shops  where  old  and  young  ply  a  handicraft 
from  early  morn  to  the  late  evening  hours.  Hun¬ 
dreds  of  men  and  women,  arriving  in  this  country 
after  they  have  passed  the  middle  life,  learn 
trades  and  work  at  them  till  their  trembling 
hands  can  hold  the  tools  no  longer  or  the  light 
fades  from  their  overstrained  eyes.  Among 
them  there  are  not  a  few  that  have  seen  better 
days  at  their  native  places,  or  are  deeply  learned 

67 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


in  the  Law.  They  are  quick  in  seizing  the 
secret  of  a  successful  trade  of  paying  manufac¬ 
ture,  and  not  rarely  better  the  instruction ;  a 
skill  for  which  they  are  hated  and  despised  by 
their  own  aristocracy  in  the  markets,  and 
branded  as  spoilers  of  every  good  thing  as  soon 
as  it  appears.  If  this  aptitude  and  eagerness 
for  trade  be  a  fault,  the  Christians  have  them¬ 
selves  to  blame  for  it.  Even  a  superficial  glance 
at  the  history  of  Israel  proves  that  as  long  as  the 
people  lived  on  their  native  soil,  and  could  live 
out  their  own  lives,  they  showed  neither  skill  nor 
desire  for  mercantile  pursuits ;  that  their  legis¬ 
lation,  their  religion,  their  poetry  and  prophesy¬ 
ing,  and  their  ethical  ideas  presuppose  a  nation 
of  shepherds  and  tillers  of  the  soil.  For  the 
great  change  in  the  ruling  disposition  of  the 
Jews,  since  their  dispersion,  those  alone  are  re¬ 
sponsible  who  now  reproach  them  for  it.  The 
first  Christians  were  Jewish  ploughmen  and 
herdsmen ;  the  Apostles  mostly  Judaean  peasants 
and  fishermen.  The  finest  parables  and  similes 

68 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


in  the  speeches  of  Jesus  are  taken  from  the  peas¬ 
ants’  occupation  and  experience.  And  even  to 
this  day  thousands  of  the  scattered  race  are 
ready  to  seize  again  the  plough  and  the  spade, 
if  they  are  given  a  chance,  and  not  a  few  have 
done  so  even  under  the  most  disheartening  con¬ 
ditions.  The  fact  is,  the  pagan  Mercury 
proved  a  more  merciful  god  to  the  Jews  than 
the  Christian  Jesus,  as  he  was  taught  and  prac¬ 
tised  by  the  mediasval  Church.  He  gloated  over 
the  sufferings  of  those  who  were  of  his  own  flesh 
and  blood.  No  wonder  they  sought  refuge  un¬ 
der  the  wings  of  the  heathen  deity  and  became 
adepts  in  the  art  which  he  symbolized. 

But  suppose  it  were  true  that  all  the  Jews  dote 
on  traffic  as  their  dearest  occupation, — ^what  of 
it?  The  British  have  the  nickname  of  “a  nation 
of  shopkeepers”  fastened  on  them;  yet  they 
were  and  are  the  greatest  benefactors  of  the 
human  race,  carrying  the  blessings  of  civiliza¬ 
tion  to  half  the  peoples  of  the  globe.  Com¬ 
merce  has  done  more  for  the  peace  of  the  world 

69 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


than  all  the  preaching,  praying,  and  prophesy¬ 
ing  taken  together.  A  great  railroad,  a  steam¬ 
ship  line,  a  cable  or  a  telephone  wire,  a  commer¬ 
cial  treaty,  a  tariff  convention, — these  are  the 
modern  bonds  that  hold  the  remotest  parts  of  the 
earth  together,  and  make  them  equally  abhor 
war  and  its  ravages.  A  falling  off  in  the  ex¬ 
ports,  a  shrinking  of  the  value  of  investments, 
an  unforeseen  competitor  in  the  markets  of  the 
world,  cause  the  rulers  of  the  most  civilized  na¬ 
tions  more  anxiety  than  any  adverse  political 
combination.  For  the  former  threaten  the  peace 
and  welfare  of  the  home  life  of  the  people,  on 
whose  contentment  they  rely  for  the  defense  of 
their  claims  in  all  their  political  intricacies.  A 
class  of  people  credited  with  the  mastery  of  the 
art  of  buying  and  selling  should,  therefore,  be 
welcome  to  every  country  and  given  the  amplest 
freedom  and  encouragement  to  ply  their  skill, 
provided,  of  course,  they  do  not  carry  their 
hoarded  profits  out  of  the  country  and  enrich 
other  nations  by  them.  But  where  do  the  Jews 


70 


ANTI-SEMITISM 

think  of  such  a  thing?  Xheir  own  country,  if 
Palestine  may  still  be  so  denominated,  is  one  of 
the  poorest  in  the  world,  and  what  little  revival 
there  has  lately  been  perceptible  is  due  to  the 
colonies  established  there  by  J ewish  peasants 
who,  under  most  trying  conditions,  labor  to  re¬ 
store  the  soil  to  its  ancient  fertility,  after  the 
long  sleep  into  which  it  has  sunk.  Jewish  wealth 
can  be  enjoyed,  and  is  being  enjoyed,  in  no  other 
way  than  non- Jewish.  Its  owners  are  charged 
by  its  religious  teachers  with  being  only  too 
willing  to  imitate  the  luxuries  and  extrava¬ 
gances  of  their  neighbors.  The  same  snares  are 
spread  for  the  feet  of  their  offspring  as  for 
those  of  Gentile  birth ;  the  tempters  that  lie  in 
wait  for  them  are  liberal  enough  to  ignore  dis¬ 
tinctions  between  the  various  creeds.  I  will 
not  stoop  to  any  defense  of  my  race  from  the 
vulgar  charge  that  they  are  cheaters;  that  each 
and  all  will  always  try,  right  or  wrong,  to  se¬ 
cure  the  best  of  any  bargain  into  which  a  poor 
Gentile  may  enter  with  them.  Those  whom  the 


71 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


commercial  standing  of  the  Jews,  here  and  else¬ 
where,  has  not  yet  cured  of  this  slanderous  preju¬ 
dice  will  not  be  converted  by  my  pleading. 
Envy  is  an  incurable  disease ;  j  ealousy  makes 
blind,  and  the  common  saying  is  surely  true,  that 
none  are  so  blind  as  those  who  will  not  see.  But 
neither  have  I  the  least  desire  to  hide  or  gloss 
over  our  real  failings  and  shortcomings. 
Those  who  cannot  rest  on  their  own  real  merits 
and  accept  the  blame  for  their  undeniable  de¬ 
merits  must  not  dare  to  challenge  the  judgment 
of  the  world.  The  Jew  does  dare  it,  and  all 
he  asks  of  his  critics  is  fairness,  impartiality, 
justice.  What  I  have  said  to  his  praise  and  for 
his  defense  was  intended  solely  to  assist  the  fair- 
minded  reader  in  forming  a  just  opinion  of  an 
agitation  which  in  Europe  embitters,  cripples, 
and  darkens  thousands  of  lives,  which,  under 
better  treatment,  would  be  spent  in  contentment 
and  general  usefulness. 

It  is  for  this  purpose  only  that  I  will  briefly 
add  two  more  traits  of  the  Jews,  equally  valuable 


72 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


and  undeniable.  One  is  their  charity ;  they  care 
for  their  poor,  their  sick,  their  aged,  if  desti¬ 
tute,  as  the  numerous  institutions  prove,  found 
in  every  place  where  they  dwell  in  sufficient  num¬ 
ber  to  maintain  them.  Ungrudgingly  they  as¬ 
sume  the  heavy  burdens  which  this  “exclusive¬ 
ness”  imposes  upon  them.  Blame  them  for  it 
who  may ;  the  right-minded  will  not,  especially 
when  assured  that  this  feeling  of  pity  is  not  the 
privilege  of  the  well-to-do  among  them  only. 
The  working  classes  have  always  something  to 
spare  from  their  scanty  earnings  for  “Z’dakah,” 
the  religious  term  in  common  use  for  charity, 
which,  significantly  enough,  in  biblical  Hebrew 
means  “justice.”  The  idea  that  charity  is  an 
essential  part  of  worship  has  been  bred  into  them 
by  long  tradition,  and  continues  to  be  regarded 
as  such,  wherever  rabbinical  Judaism  survives 
in  full  force.  From  childhood  every  Jew  knows 
the  saying  of  Simon  the  Just,  one  of  the  last 
men  of  the  Great  Synagogue : — 

“The  whole  world  rests  on  these  three  pillars ; 

Law,  Worship,  and  Charity.” 


73 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


The  other  trait  is  their  zeal  in  the  education 
of  their  children. 

One  of  the  standard  objections  to  the  He¬ 
brews  is  their  “forwardness” ;  socially,  it  is  a 
disagreeable  and  annoying  fault,  but  otherwise 
a  gift  of  no  little  value.  Forwardness  is  the 
soul  of  all  progress  and  advancement.  Call  it 
that,  call  it  self-help,  call  it  energy,  call  it  self- 
reliance,  call  it  by  the  popular  name  of  wide- 
awakeness,  and  you  transfigure  the  fault  into  a 
merit.  How  the  Jew  was  able  to  preserve  it  in 
any  one  of  its  forms  is  one  of  the  many  miracles 
of  his  history,  seeing  that  the  world  has  left 
nothing  untried  to  cast  the  Jews  backward  to 
the  last  depth  of  self-despair.  An  exhibition  of 
his  forwardness  might  be  seen  at  the  doors  of 
the  public  schools  in  the  lower  districts  of  the 
city,  notably  at  the  time  of  admission  of  new 
pupils.  The  poorest  of  the  Jewish  fathers  and 
mothers  would  be  seen  wrangling  for  the  regis¬ 
tration  of  their  little  ones,  as  if  it  were  for  their 
daily  bread.  And  may  this  not  also  serve  for  a 

74 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


proof  that  the  parents  are  willing  to  surrender 
their  offspring  to  the  influence  of  these  schools, 
and  see  them  thoroughly  Americanized? 

By  these  signs  ye  shall  know  the  Jews, 
wherever  ye  find  them;  they  may,  therefore,  be 
called  racial.  In  every  other  respect  they  are 
neither  better  nor  worse  than  other  people  of  the 
corresponding  stages  of  life.  Every  variety  of 
character  is  found  among  them ;  virtue  and 
vice  are  distributed  among  them.  Let  Ameri¬ 
cans  not  stigmatize  them  as  “undesirable  immi¬ 
grants,”  and  close  their  hospitable  gate  upon 
them.  Thej^  bring  with  them  qualities  which 
are  an  ample  compensation  for  their  defects, 
and  their  well-to-do  brethren  are  not  behindhand 
in  seeing  to  it  that  they  become  no  public  bur¬ 
den.  The  American  people  have  repeatedly 
shown  the  door  to  those  who  came  hither  for  the 
purpose  of  preaching  anti-Semitism,  thereby 
publicly  testifying  that  they  would  have  none  of 
that  disgrace  to  our  age.  What  exists  of  it  in 


75 


ANTI-SEMITISM 


social  life  is  not  worth  arguing  against.  It  will 
and  must  disappear  in  a  country,  the  civil  order 
of  which  is  based  upon  the  principle  of  equal 
rights  to  all  law-abiding  citizens,  to  whatever 
race  or  religion  they  may  belong.  “A  fair  field 
and  no  favor.”  This  good  old  saying  comprises 
all  our  demands. 


76 


Date  Due 


7  ' 


